8 HOUR at Hardwood

Surprised there's been no thread regarding the Summer 8 hour at Hardwood this weekend. Who's in?
Rode the course on Sunday, like last year it's off Hardwood property in the Simcoe County trails. Little to no climbing on this course & they included the MBX course at the end. Really fun course. Signed up solo & have no delusions of doing well but I hope I'm not last

I'm in on a tag team. I'm looking forward to wandering around chatting to people and occasionally riding around at a sedately fastish old guy sort of pace.
Have you done a solo 8 before, Merdoff? I've seen you ride, I'd be surprised if you didn't do very well indeed.

I'm in on a tag team. I'm looking forward to wandering around chatting to people and occasionally riding around at a sedately fastish old guy sort of pace.
Have you done a solo 8 before, Merdoff? I've seen you ride, I'd be surprised if you didn't do very well indeed.

Tag? whatever will you do with all that extra time? lol. I've never done a solo at Hardwood but have done 8hr races in the past and have done Paul's dirty 100 several times. Just looking forward to a long ride with several hundred other like minded individuals. I think the women's top 3 podium finishes are already spoken for when I see some familiar names doing it

What a great day to be out on the bike! The temps were perfect, conditions were perfect & the etiquette on the trail was the best I've ever seen.

My only goal of the day was to reach the 100km mark which I was successful at doing. I really loved this course although I did find the last 2-3 sections of singletrack exhausting in my last few laps. Looking forward to seeing the photos from the event, lots of photogs out there

A great day to be out on the bike and a great course to be racing on. I had a really good time riding and talking. It's surprising how small our community is. Everyone seems to know everyone else.
I thought the course rocked. Not physically tough, and not too difficult, but there were definitely a couple of spots that I thought might cause pain if not ridden with, ummm, respect.
I couldn't believe how fast some of the solos ( actually a lot of them) went out for the first few laps. Absolutely scary that some of them kept it up. Gord Ruder was unbelievable.
Riot, I saw too much of you, I've had a word with my young teammate, he's to ride faster next time . Serious, didn't get to see much of you at all, which is the life of a solo I guess. Saw more of Merdoff, you looked good, female solo's are a strong category these days eh?
And Uncle Oggie was there! I think when he goes we should stuff him and put him on a pedestal in the grand entrance hall at Hardwood ( we may have to do some construction )

What a great day to be out on the bike! The temps were perfect, conditions were perfect & the etiquette on the trail was the best I've ever seen.

My only goal of the day was to reach the 100km mark which I was successful at doing. I really loved this course although I did find the last 2-3 sections of singletrack exhausting in my last few laps. Looking forward to seeing the photos from the event, lots of photogs out there

you looked strong and gracious out there Mere. Congrats!!!

yeah, the last bit of the course just before it finally starts to go down was a bit of a challenge for the legs. interesting course, for sure.

A great day to be out on the bike and a great course to be racing on. I had a really good time riding and talking. It's surprising how small our community is. Everyone seems to know everyone else.
I thought the course rocked. Not physically tough, and not too difficult, but there were definitely a couple of spots that I thought might cause pain if not ridden with, ummm, respect.
I couldn't believe how fast some of the solos ( actually a lot of them) went out for the first few laps. Absolutely scary that some of them kept it up. Gord Ruder was unbelievable.
Riot, I saw too much of you, I've had a word with my young teammate, he's to ride faster next time . Serious, didn't get to see much of you at all, which is the life of a solo I guess. Saw more of Merdoff, you looked good, female solo's are a strong category these days eh?
And Uncle Oggie was there! I think when he goes we should stuff him and put him on a pedestal in the grand entrance hall at Hardwood ( we may have to do some construction )

lol stuffed Oggie... now that is cute...

please do not make such long breaks between your appearances at such events. they are not the same without your smile.

PS Yeah - kudos to all solos and RESPECT for Gord. was his first lap time an error? is it humanly possible? makes me proud when i manage to finish our tuesday night races and our times are in the same area code.

A great day to be out on the bike and a great course to be racing on. I had a really good time riding and talking. It's surprising how small our community is. Everyone seems to know everyone else.
I thought the course rocked. Not physically tough, and not too difficult, but there were definitely a couple of spots that I thought might cause pain if not ridden with, ummm, respect.
I couldn't believe how fast some of the solos ( actually a lot of them) went out for the first few laps. Absolutely scary that some of them kept it up. Gord Ruder was unbelievable.
Riot, I saw too much of you, I've had a word with my young teammate, he's to ride faster next time . Serious, didn't get to see much of you at all, which is the life of a solo I guess. Saw more of Merdoff, you looked good, female solo's are a strong category these days eh?
And Uncle Oggie was there! I think when he goes we should stuff him and put him on a pedestal in the grand entrance hall at Hardwood ( we may have to do some construction )

You saw way too much of me because you kept passing me. I need to get faster so I can someday perhaps stay a little bit in front of uncle Dave.

PS Yeah - kudos to all solos and RESPECT for Gord. was his first lap time an error? is it humanly possible?

A lot of the solo 1st lap times seem a bit fast. Pretty sure they were adjusted for a start in a 2nd wave at 10:05, because if you mouse over the lap time in the results it will give you the end time and they don't jive with the 10:00 start. Not that I don't think some of the solos are capable of throwing down a 25, but evidence points toward timing glitch.

I think Veteran youth is correct with the 5 minute subtraction. My 1st lap showed 31 minutes which seemed too little for the somewhat leisurely pace I was carrying with the group I was with. Also a teammate of mine who was right up front at the start had her finishing time 10 seconds behind mine & I don't think I passed her even amongst that large mass start.

Ahh. Yup. You guys must be right about the time subtraction. Gord and Alex were fast but they weren't the first through that lap. The time isn't off by five minutes though. Maybe two or three minutes.
Time to geek out on pictures.

Unfortunately our community is on a decline because these races are no longer geared towards the average rider. Trust me, I'm a below average rider and found it hard to be on the same trail with riders 10x my speed.

The only race I find that was growing was the Liberty Squeezer. To bad it died, but it really catered to the average MTBR. That race is what this sport needed to grow. It was the only race my friends and their friends joined because they enjoyed the course and the festival afterwards. They don't even think about joining O-cup, 24hrs or even this 8hrs event because it's too competitive very little fun (for them).

Also what ever happened to the Durango, Ice Breaker and some of the other fun events?

Anyways like I said my team and I had a blast and look forward to entering this event again next year.